Lucille
Lucille, Countess of Nix, is the wife of Fidelia's brother Laurent and the mother of Charlotte, who is third in line to the throne. She claims to be descended from the now-extinct Merva family line, but without any proof to her claims, Queen Fidelia made a compromise to name her brother Duke of Merva, elevating Lucille through marriage instead. She's hiding much more than she lets on... Spoiler Warning: ''Plot details follow, read at your own risk'' Involvement She's responsible for almost every single attempt on Elodie's life. During Week 1, she and her family come to visit Elodie on the royal capital. Barely two weeks after, Lucille will plant a snake in the royal garden to attack Elodie while she and Charlotte play there. No matter the outcome, after the snake's attack she will rush into the garden and pretend shock, then pressure her family into returning to Merva. If Elodie uses magic against Ixion during Week 10 (prepared for battle the week prior), Lucille, feeling threatened, will hire an assassin to murder Elodie during the Procession of the Good Lady (Week 16). If Elodie confronts and neutralizes the assassin (either kills him herself or the assassin poisons himself), she will find a coded note that reveals the assassin's benefactor as a member of the ruling house of Merva. Worth noting that the above event will vary if Elodie didn't use magic in Week 10, but punished Brin instead (executing or making her a commoner). In this case, it will be Banion who hired the assassin. If Elodie decodes the letter, she can only accuse either Merva or Maree, but if she doesn't, she can use the letter as circumstantial evidence against either. During the Grand Ball (Week 17), if Elodie has enough Sense Magic (>80), she will discover Lucille is a Lumen. She can confront her about it, in which case Lucille severely downplays her powers to appear harmless. If Elodie is better at detecting magic (Sense Magic >100), she will see through Lucille's lies and accuse her, Lucille will try to render her vegetative with magic but Elodie can redirect the magic to literally "burn her out" instead (Resist Magic >80). Either case, if she's not accused, Elodie can hire her as her Lumen Minister, which appeases Lucille. Alternatively, if Elodie has the assassin's letter and doesn't use it against Banion, she can use it to accuse Lucille instead. Lucille will pretend innocence and outrage while begging for her children's lives. Thus, is she doesn't drop the subject, Elodie will instead incarcerate or execute Laurent. If he's incarcerated, Lucille will poison Laurent with a maddening drug to cover her tracks.. If not hired or eliminated, Lucille will be behind the bandits of Week 29 and the poisoned chocolates of Week 32. If she was hired as Lumen Minister, Lucille can aid in the magic ritual of Week 34. If Elodie contracted Sabine as a spy and didn't dispose of the chocolates, she can send Sabine on an investigation. During Week 37 Sabine will reveal Lucille as the perpetrator. Elodie can choose to have Lucille executed alone, with Laurent, with her entire family, banished, or simply do nothing. If Joslyn died Elodie will be too distraught and reduce her choices to either total execution for the family or doing nothing (the latter is the default choice if the current mood is Depressed). Alternatively, Elodie can decide that it's Sabine who's lying and have her punished instead. Acting on the information won't have immediate results, the player has to wait until the epilogues. If Joslyn died and Elodie didn't suspect Lucille, the Merva family will permanently move into the palace to stay close to Elodie. Lucille will use this chance to dissuade Elodie from marrying early, and later poison her to make her barren, guaranteeing Elodie won't be able to have children. However, if Elodie has enough Intrigue, she will name Laurent Duke of Caloris, and Lucille Duchess of Merva, appeasing the latter and avoiding her infertility attempt. If Lucille is a Lumen Minister and Elodie obtains a spare Lumen crystal, she will attempt to requisition it for Charlotte. If the crystal is from Togami, Charlotte will successfully activate it, but if the crystal is from the wife-killer (Week 20) she won't be able to activate it. Personality She shows herself as a kindly aunt to Elodie, constantly asking for her wellbeing and giving advice when needed, as well as something of a mother hen to her family. This is an act. Lucille is an extremely manipulative, ruthless, cruel woman whose favored method is to put on a kindly façade to keep her targets unaware before stabbing them in the back. Her words are sugar laced with poison. If cornered, she will pretend innocence or ignorance, for example, if confronted during Week 17 she will lie about her powers, claiming that she just obtained her crystal and barely knows how to use it; or, if Elodie decodes the letter from the assassin revealing he came from Merva, she will play innocent and beg Elodie not to harm her children. She's quick to dispose of those that are no longer useful to her, or are an obstacle to her goals, as she will try to do to Elodie for almost the entirety of the game. She can be particularly sadistic about it too, taking for example what she can do to Elodie if accused during Week 17, and what she will do to Laurent if she banished in one epilogue. In short, she neatly fits the Evil Aunt archetype common in stories of royalty, with the added twist of not actually being Elodie's aunt by blood. The only person she shows any honest care and concern for is her daughter Charlotte. All her plots are to have Charlotte crowned Queen of Nova. She also helps Charlotte control her powers through meditation, and does as possible to hide Charlotte's status as a potential Lumen from anyone else. Though, it's hardly as if she's completely selfless about her daughter: she may be hiding Charlotte's powers to avoid anyone from connecting it to her own Lumen status, and (if the player has her investigate) Sabine may deduce that Lucille intends to rule Nova through her daughter. It's unknown if this caring extends to her other two children. Abilities If Elodie confronts her during Week 17, she will claim she just recently activated her crystal and can only use it to block out sound. That's a blatant lie and doesn't even begin to describe her magic prowess. Lucille has been mastering her powers for a long time, and can easily use them to very dangerous extents. Her powers are based on the absence of things like sound, movement, light, and life. If Elodie tries to publicly accuse her of lying about her magic, Lucille will try to (and possibly succeed in) induce locked-in syndrome in Elodie, devoiding her of hearing, sight, movement, and voice. If Elodie sacrifices Charlotte to the Kraken while Lucille is alive, the latter will drain the life out of Elodie with magic. If she's banished from Nova, Lucille will use her powers to invoke silent explosions to tear apart her captors from the inside. She's also knowledgeable of poisonous herbs and medicines. In some epilogues she will disguise an infertility poison as medicine and use it undetected on Elodie (unless the latter has high Herbs scores). This is also most likely how she poisons Laurent if he's imprisoned. She also regularly uses small doses of poison to Charlotte to grant her temporary immunity, and nobody suspects it as the reason for Charlotte's bouts of illness. That's without detailing her skills at manipulation and intrigue. Unless Elodie is well trained in Intrigue or has skilled spies, she will never discover her aunt as the perpetrator of almost every single attempt on her life. At the same time, if Elodie doesn't do anything about it, Lucille will keep playing her family into her ploys. Trivia * Lieke shares her portrait, with changes in color, facial expression, and clothes. * She's the same age as Corisande. * She was in a past relationship with Brin. In a special conversation during Week 18, Brin claims that some of the women she was involved with left her for men. Since the only exception she mentions is Julianna (who left her for another woman instead), Lucille was most likely one of the said women. Though circumstances make it uncertain to determine if Lucille is a lesbian or bisexual, since the only man she's been explicitly involved with is Laurent, whom she considers little more than a disposable pawn. * As an ironic play on her name, not only are Lucille's powers based on the absence ''of things, including light (thus, darkness), but her niece, who she antagonizes for much of the game, has light-based powers. Etymology '''Lucille' is an English and French feminine given name meaning "light". Category:Characters Category:Lumen